by Dan Rua…just a VC, living vicariously thru entrepreneurs…

GOOG Will Die an Open Death

I’ve been digging into open search, playing around with Hadoop, Nutch, Wikia Search and other efforts. I don’t think it’s close to supplanting GOOG, but it will eventually. It will start with better results and/or better display of results — particularly to niche/long-tail needs. The key will be when someone applies a sustainable revenue model to Open Search in a manner that allows distribution channels to get off the GOOG candy.

The fight hasn’t been about search quality for some time. It’s been about buying distribution. However, there have only been a few players with search quality high enough to test distribution models. When Open Search allows anyone to match search quality/display, then creative monetization models will emerge — unlocking distribution in the process.

About

Thanks for stopping by. In case we haven't met before, I'm Dan Rua, Managing Partner of Inflexion Partners, an early-stage venture capital fund based in Florida and focused on the Southeast US. Prior to Inflexion I was a partner with Draper Atlantic, DFJ's first east coast fund based in Northern Virginia. Prior to that I co-founded an email software company and was an engineer with IBM's Networking Software Labs in RTP, NC.

This blog is for sharing stories and discussing entrepreneurs, venture capital, technology, and Florida -- particularly when I can provide perspective unique from the typical Boston (B) or Silicon Valley (S) view. Inflexion is my third fund and all my funds have focused on building world-changing companies in regions outside the BS...